To Choose
by Killin da Stage
Summary: Talented and beautiful, Miri is friends with everyone, including the Twilight gang. She knows their secrets. Along comes Jared, Bella's hot as hell cousin, and there's an immediate connection between the two. Rated M just in case. Better than it sounds.


**Hellllllooooooo, everyone. As I said, this is my new story. I'm not sure about it, so whether or not continue depends on the quality and quantity of the reviews I get on this chapter. **

**Thanks,**

**Killin da stage**

**Jared's POV**

Great. I still have to wait another 5 hours for the party. I'm too excited!

See, 2 weeks ago my parents told me that I was moving away from Port Angeles to Forks. Forks is a small town just an hour and a half from Port Angeles. My cousin, Bella Swan, lives there with her dad, Charlie. I was going to go live with them for a while to give my parents can work on their relationship, which is slowly deteriorating. It didn't bother me much; I was sort of expecting it. To be completely honest, I was pretty excited. I hadn't seen Bella in over 6 years and I had heard that she had changed heaps. Apparently she got married to some guy called Edward Cullen and adopted his niece. Weird thing is though she looks a lot like Bella. I'd seen pictures.

Anyway, I've been living here for only 3 hours and I've already been invited to this huge welcome party. Apparently the girl hosting it is really rich, beautiful and the most popular girl in Forks High. That's right, not just the grade but also the whole school. She was one of Bella's best friends, along with a girl called Alice Cullen and Ruby Pryce. Her name's Miri Carter and her dad used to be a famous singer but now he owns a recording company called Hot Tunes in China and is the richest man in Washington. However, best of all, she was single. I think it would be safe to say that I'm excited to meet her, even though I knew that she would probably be a cocky, stuck-up snob.

The party was to be held outside her house. Bella helped set up and she said that there was going to be a DJ. She had a weird look in her eye, almost as if there was a purpose for the DJ. I could tell she wanted to tell me something but when I asked she gave me a too innocent look and denied it.

Despite my curiosity, I didn't get my hopes up. Bella, Charlie, Edward, Alice, Emmett and Rose were probably just over exaggerating. By what they said, she sounded absolutely perfect, and from past experience he knew that no one was perfect.

**Miri's POV**

I was so excited! My party was only in 5 hours and I was just about to pick out my outfit with the help of my 3 best friends Bella, Alice and Ruby. Alice and Bella were vampires, but Ruby and I were the only ones that knew. The four of us were obsessed with fashion. Well, not so much Bella, but she gave good advice. I felt that, since I was hosting the party, I should look good. However, Ruby and I had to have our dance clothes ready just in case the DJ plays Poker Face, Live Your Life or In The Ayer. I have a feeling that this was the reason why Bella and Alice wanted a DJ, because if we didn't I wouldn't allow these songs to be played.

You see, since I was 5 years old I've been doing 4 types of dancing. Jazz, Hip-Hop, Contemporary and Ballet. This resulted in me now being one of the best dancers in Washington. I started playing guitar and singing when I was ten, so I was pretty good. Everyone at my school knows me for both of those talents but that is what annoys me. They always ask me to sing but I'm not one for attracting attention. However, I know that I won't be able to avoid any of these three songs. These three songs are the hosts of my best, most famous dances. Two Jazz and one Hip-Hop. Also, the choreographer of the hip-hop dance was a guy about 25 years old that thought I was hot, so it a really embarrassing. The dance was a little sleazy for my liking, but everyone else likes it so I may as well go along with it.

I turned to my friends who were sitting on my bed, waiting eagerly. Bella had on an oyster satin cocktail dress in a nice dark blue, this being Edward's favourite colour on her, with black, peep-tows. Alice had on a cute, white and pink corset dress with pink, extra high heels. Ruby had on a sexy, black, extremely close fitted dress that came about 5 inches above her knees, with black and silver knee high boots. They all looked stunning, especially Bella. Ruby, as usual, looked a bit sleazy, but she didn't care.

"Shall we enter the wardrobe?" I said with a fake English accent. All 4 of us laughed and walked over to my wardrobe. I had begged my dad to give me a wardrobe larger than Alice's. At first I did not succeed, but he finally gave it to me as an 18th birthday present, along with a black Corvette. That had to be the best birthday ever!

I opened the doors and walked in, friends in tow. We all split up and looked through a rack each. I had four racks of formal dresses.

"Hey Ri, what about this one?" asked Ruby. She was holding up a scanty dress that I had to buy as a dare last year. I had to buy it, walk around the mall in it and flirt with every boy around our age. It was so embarrassing.

"You better be joking or my foot will be up your butt!" I joked, laughing. The rest of them laughed as well then got back to looking for the perfect dress. It was about half an hour later when Bella squealed.

"This one's perfect!"

**Bella's POV**

"This one's perfect!" I exclaimed. I had been looking through my rack and after a while my mind had drifted to Jared. He had broken up with his most recent girlfriend 3 months ago. Bella had been thinking who she could set him up with but come up blank. She had considered Ruby, but had to rethink that after she started frothing over Robert Pattinson and was planning a trip to Hollywood to meet him. She had not realized the perfect person had been right under her nose the whole time. In fact, she was now in the

same room as her.

Miri!

I kept looking and then saw a beautiful scarlet dress. It had spaghetti straps with diamonds at the base. It then had a band of jewels around the waste, flaring in a petticoat looking style to just above the knees. It was the most expensive dress I had

ever seen. I knew this because I had been the one with Miri when she bought it.

It was 17 thousand dollars.

I then realised that deep red was Jared's favourite colour. This would be a good start.

"Oh my god, you are definitely right!" exclaimed Alice. I gave her a meaningful look that said, "I need to talk to you."

"So true!" squealed Ruby.

"Then I guess that's the one!" confirmed Miri, excited. She had been oblivious to my meaningful look and was literally bouncing with happiness. She bent down to grab a pair of scarlet, six-inch peep tows. She disappeared into the bathroom to get dressed.

"Bella, spill!" Alice said straight away. She had her hip popped and her arms folded. Her eyes were wide with excitement.

"Jared's outside. His favourite colour is scarlet and Miri's favourite colour is scarlet. He plays the guitar and she plays the guitar. She beautiful and he's handsome. They have so much in common. Jared's ex-girlfriend cheated on him. Miri's ex-boyfriend cheated on her. They both need someone who understands what they are going through!" I ranted.

"Alice, we need to get Jared and Miri together! Think about it when Edward's there, so he'll tell the others."

"OMG! You're brilliant, Bella! I can see it working, but it might change! It's worth a shot!" She squealed.

"What did Bella do now?" asked Ruby, entering the room. We explained our plan to her, and she was just as excited as Alice was.

5 minutes later Miri still had not come out and we were starting to get impatient.

"Ri, what are you doing? Can I come in?" I called through the door.

"Uh huh," she replied vaguely. And I walked through the door.

"Oh my god!" I gasped.

**Miri's POV**

I had some trouble getting the dress on, but finally I succeeded. I tuned to look into the mirror, and I immediately felt paralysed. I didn't mean to sound up myself or anything, but the dress looked amazing. It made my waste look tiny, not that it was overly big. It made my breasts look perfect. I couldn't do anything but stand there, staring at the mirror. I must have been standing there for a while, because I heard Bella's pretty voice through the door.

"Ri, what are you doing? Can I come in?" her voice sounded concerned, but I still couldn't move. I managed to mumble.

"Uh huh," I said pathetically. Bella came through the door and gasped.

"Oh my god!" She walked up to me and stood there staring. The others followed through and also froze where they were. For about 5 minutes we stood there, staring at the dress until I could finally break the silence.

"I think Bella deserves an award for best choice in dress," I all but yelled, breaking the others out of their trance. They all laughed then Alice voiced aloud what we had all been thinking.

"By the looks of that dress on you, you won't have to worry about being rejected by any of the guys." They all murmured their agreements while I chuckled nervously.

"I'm making a vow to leave this party still innocent," I swore to myself. The others giggled doubtfully and I scowled.

"I will. Now Alice, do my make-up," I said. I didn't have to worry about being polite, because I knew I was doing her a favour. She squealed and clapped her hands, leading me into the bathroom to get started. "Bella – hair. Ruby – dance clothes." They all got to work.

**Jared's POV**

"Dude, come on! We have to go!" I yelled at Edward. He was sitting there looking at photos of Bella. The look on his face was sickening. Their whole relationship was sickening. They were so madly in love that they couldn't stand being apart for more than a few hours. It had been 6 hours now and he was starting to get all lovey-dovey.

"Okay, okay, I'm coming!" he yelled back, frustrated. We headed out to the car, me driving. Edward directed me to Miri Carter's house. When we got there, I couldn't say anything. It was massive. Big, white with a black roof. 4 stories, one side of the house made of glass windows. The lights were on in one of the rooms, and I could see four girls hurrying around one girl sitting down, who I guess was Miri. I couldn't see any of their faces though.

I looked around and saw many things. First, every single guy at the party was staring up at the room with the lights on. Secondly, there was a huge marquee set up in the front yard with a stage and DJ set up underneath it. The DJ's set was massive. And thirdly, there was a man rushing around yelling out orders at the set up people and waiters. I guessed that this was her dad. There was also a lady walking with him, who I guessed was her mum. I also saw my large group of friends that I had met before through Bella standing a fair way away, talking and throwing glances up at the room with the girls in it.

I walked over to them, eager to get the party started. There had to be over a hundred people here, but nothing exciting was going on.

"Hey guys!" I said enthusiastically, before adding," Hey, are all your parties like this? Its so boring!" I groaned the last part. They all chuckled.

"Always at the start. But then Miri and the other three show up and everyone leaves saying it was the best party of their existence," replied Jasper, still staring at the girls in the room.

"Who is in the room?" I asked, curious as to what was so good. They all looked at me in disbelief and scepticism.

"Miri, Bella, Alice and Ruby. Miri's the one sitting down," answered Mike in a tone that suggested I should have known.

"Surely she not that great, guys," I said, rolling my eyes. They all chuckled, but it was Emmett that answered me.

"Dude, just shut up. Trust me. You've seen Rosalie, haven't you?" he asked. I remember the stunningly beautiful blonde model that was Emmett's wife. When I nodded enthusiastically, he went on. "Well, as much as I love her with all my heart, Miri's outdoes her a mile."

"I doubt that," I muttered, causing them all to roll their eyes and some said, "We'll see."

I looked up at the room to see that it was empty. At that exact moment the lights dimmed and I could slightly make out the shadows of 3 girls coming out of the door of the house. The next moment the DJ's loud, animated voice burst through the speakers, causing everyone to scream and yell in excitement.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the beautiful, lovely, talented and smoking hot…" he practically screamed the next part," MIRI CARTER!"

Screams irrupted from everyone, reminding me of the Cold Play concert I had once been to, including the guys. With the lights still off, a single spotlight focused on the doorway to the house, where, a moment later, an amazing, stunningly beautiful girl came out.

Even from here I could tell that no one had been exaggerating one bit. If anything, they had understated it. She was like nothing I had ever seen before. She made cherubs look like gargoyles. All I could do was stare. I felt my friend's eyes on me, and I heard some people mutter, "I told you so." But right now I didn't care. I was in a trance.

I finally looked away from her reluctantly, looking at my friends.

"See?" asked Alex, a smirk on his face. I couldn't deny it, and I didn't want to. She was too beautiful, and that was just from a distance. Instead, I just nodded, dumbfounded. They all chuckled.

"That's just from a distance. You should see her up close," added Jez as an after thought. That got me thinking.

"Haven't you all got girlfriends?" I asked, confused.

"Trust me, they don't mind. I'm pretty sure even Rose gets turned on sometimes. She's always joking around about it," replied Emmett. I just chuckled.

I looked back at the angel, and realised she looked really uncomfortable and not overly happy. It pained me to see her upset. I shook my head clear. I hadn't even met her and her pain was already my own.

"Why doesn't she look happy?" I asked, still staring at her.

"She doesn't like it when the DJ presents her like that. She's never been one for that type of attention," chuckled Kip. Miri didn't sound like a stuck-up snob like I had thought.

"Can I go meet her?" I asked eagerly. They all shook their heads.

"She doesn't like it when guys hit on her. Here's the plan. Later on she will be dancing and singing. She likes it when her friends come up to the front. That means Alice, Ruby, Bella and Rose. Jasper, Edward and I will go up there with Alice and Bella and Rose, and you will follow. When she gets offstage we'll all congratulate her and then we will introduce you to her," Emmett rushed. Then Edward added.

"She'll be dancing very soon. The DJ will tell her to go get dressed over mic."

"Awesome," I said. Just as I said that, the DJ's voice burst over the speakers again.

"Well, guys, now's the time that you've all been waiting for. Miri, could you please go get ready to dance?" he directed the question at her. By this time, Miri had already gotten into to mood and was dancing near the stage with a big group of friends. I looked over to her and saw her groan and slump her shoulders. Everyone laughed, causing her to yell out to the DJ so that everyone could hear.

"Which one? Can I just do them all now so that I don't have to keep getting dressed? I'll sing later!" He just nodded in reply, and her and Ruby disappeared to behind the marquee.

**Miri's POV**

The lights went off as I went behind the marquee. I was so nervous, and I knew that my back-up dancers were too. I decided not to go for a pep talk.

"Hey guys," I said as I started to get dressed. The male back-up dancers just stared but I was used to it. "Good luck tonight, everyone!" I yelled. I walked up to Jacob, my partner for part of the dance.

"Jacob, I've changed the pivot in the third sequence to a swing, okay?" When he nodded hesitantly, I went on. "Jake, don't let your nerves get the best of you. We've done it in front of them before, and you were fine then," I comforted him. He seemed to relax a lot more, so I turned and walked up the stair to the stage, Ruby close behind me. It was completely black, so no one saw me. I felt extremely self-conscious in my black and pink sports bra. Then the DJ spoke. I hoped that the back-ups were ready to come on cue.

"Here we go, guys! Miri, which one first?" He asked me through the mic.

"Poker Face!" I yelled as loud as I could, causing the crowd to scream and applaud. I could vaguely see the silhouettes of my friends in the front row. This comforted me considerably.

Then the music hadn't started. I moved into my starting position, my back facing the audience while holding the peace sign with my fingers over my shoulder. The spotlight focused on me, and I became extremely nervous. I looked over at Ruby, who was offstage, and she smiled encouragingly at me. I smiled in response. People were wolf-whistling me from the audience. I heard a wolf-whistle and knew that it was Bella. I turned my head to look down at her and flicked her the finger. Everyone laughed. Then

the music started.

Everyone started screaming again as I turned around. I saw a boy in the front row with my friends that I had never seen before. He was beautiful. My heart nearly stopped when I saw him and I was caught my breath. He had a dumbfounded expression on his face and he was just staring at me. When I caught his eye, I smiled. I saw him catch his breath. My friends were not oblivious to our eye contact either. They looked at him and started laughing at his expression. I saw Bella walk over to him and put her arm around

him. Ah, so this was Bella's cousin. He was gorgeous!

Then the lyrics started, and if he thought I was a good dancer before, he didn't know anything. This was my favourite bit. Really fast and complicated.

I wanna hold em' like they do in Texas Plays

Fold em' let em' hit me raise it baby stay with me (I love it)

Luck and intuition play the cards with Spades to start

And after he's been hooked I'll play the one that's on his heart

Now it started to get a bit more gut-jerking for the guys. It was fun to watch their faces when I did this part. They all liked the fact that it was on the floor, too.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, ohhhh, ohh-oh-e-ohh-oh-oh

I'll get him hot, show him what I've got

Oh, oh, oh, oh, ohhhh, ohh-oh-e-ohh-oh-oh,

I'll get him hot, show him what I've got

I danced through the chorus with a million wolf-whistles and I couldn't help but laugh. Every now and then I would glance back at my back up. They were all having a ball! They were all smiling and dancing with much more energy than last time. I don't know why. What did they know that I didn't?

I wanna roll with him a hard pair we will be

A little gambling is fun when you're with me

On "Me" my group had rehearsed for them all to point at me and I'll act oblivious. However, what I wasn't expecting was for the crowd to point at me and replace the word "ME" for "HER". I laughed. I was always known for liking to make bets with people. I was also known for never losing a bet since I was 5 years old. The crowd all screamed again. I looked down to the boy I had seen before and he was looking around, confused. He turned to Bella and asked her something to which she gave a very long reply. I assumed she was telling him about my betting habits.

Russian Roulette is not the same without a gun

And baby when it's love if its not rough it isn't fun, fun

I did the floor sequence again and Bella's cousin's jaw nearly fell on the floor. I couldn't resist chucking at that.

The next bit was my partner sequence with Jacob. He came up and sexily grabbed my waist, just like we had rehearsed. I saw all the guys' eyes bulge out of their heads when they saw that. Ah, this was fun!

I won't tell you that I love you

Kiss or hug you

Cause I'm bluffin' with my muffin

I'm not lying

I'm just stunnin' with my love-glue-gunning

Just like a chick in the casino

Take your bank before I pay you out

I promise this, promise this

Check this hand cause I'm marvelous

All the guys had been totally taken aback by this bit because it was new. Me and Jacob had been talking and decided to do it. I wanted to see what it would do to the male population at the dance. I saw BC (My new name for Bella's cousin until I know his name) ask Bella why everyone was so surprised. I looked at Bella and she was staring at me, her eyes wide with surprise. I understood that she told him that I had added that bit just recently.

The music finished and I was barely exhausted, but I knew my back-ups were. The boys all gasped at my finishing pose for some reason. It wasn't that bad. It was just the backup guys standing in a line and holding me horizontal. Mike's, BC's, Emmett's and Kip's eyes were bugging out of their sockets and I had to resist the urge to laugh.

"Boys, put me down," I ordered, otherwise they would never put me down. Boys' responses to me annoyed me a bit. I'm not anything special. Okay, I'll admit, I'm not ugly. But I'm definitely not as pretty as Bella, Alice or Rosalie. But they didn't get this type of response. Finally the boys put me down and I walked over to the rest of back-up.

"Take a fiver, guys!" I yelled. "That was excellent!" I added in encouragement.

I then walked to the front of the stage and saw Emmett and Edward come over to help me down. I went to take their hands for support but before I could register what was happening I was sitting on their shoulders and they were bouncing around and Emmett was singing Poker Face.

"Okay, okay, you had your fun! Now put me down before I vomit!" I half yelled, half laughed. They leaned down and I got off, immediately turning to Bella and Rose.

"Control your husbands, women!" I laughed. They laughed along.

"Oh my god, Ri! You were amazing! When did you add that partner sequence, though? It was a bit…er…" spluttered Alice.

"Sleazy?" Emmett, Mike, Kip and Alex all said at the same time. I laughed.

"That was kind of the whole point," I laughed, "It was just a little experiment that me and Jake wanted to do."

"Were you not trying very hard or something? I've seen you dance better than that before," said Bella. Usually I would have been offended, but she was right.

"I was trying but I was more nervous tonight than usual. I've just got a feeling that something was going to happen tonight. My back-up were different too. It's almost as if they knew something that I didn't. I had been feeling uneasy since the party started, of course, they were the ones that organized that prank during the dance," I confided in them. They all laughed and nodded.

"Anyway, you were great, as usual," Jasper said, starting up another round of compliments. I felt a blush creeping up my face, and it only made me more embarrassed. I heard a low, musical chuckle next to me and I suddenly remembered the presence of the God. I slowly turned to him. My breathing hitched and my heart skipped a beat.

**How was it? Let me know, I won't continue unless I get heaps of reviews**

**Loving you all!**

**Killin da stage**


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